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COVID-19 Bulletin: Wednesday 9 September

September 9, 2020

This is our weekly bulletin and will be issued every Wednesday. Please use this bulletin and cascade arrangements within care and corporate groups to guide your actions. We are determined to reduce avoidable harm and death in the people we are taking care of. Kindness remains the guiding principle of all the actions in our work to tackle the virus – kindness in how we look after patients, visitors, and one another.

Numbers not statistics: Today’s totals (last week’s data)

Number of our patients confirmed with COVID-19 during the pandemic Number of positive COVID-19 patients who have been discharged during the pandemic Number of patients who have died in our hospitals who tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic Number of participants entered by the Trust into a COVID-19 related research trial to date Number of COVID-19 positive patients who are inpatients with us today Number of people who have had antibody tests including partner agency staff Number of our staff absent due to ill-health or isolation today
1,420

(1,410)

 1,020

(1,005)

 391
(391)		 255
(233)		 9
(14)		 12,533
(12,516)		 383
(394)

 1. How are you?

Really – how are you? Taking time out look after your mental health and wellbeing is something that can sometimes be overlooked. As we move through this pandemic, we recognise the importance of finding the time to reflect and build resilience.

The Recharge Booth is a ‘virtual’ space that allows you to come together with others, to reflect, recharge, decompress, and join a safe and confidential discussion. Hosted by Richard Burnell, it runs every Thursday at 2pm, sharing stories from different colleagues over a 20-30 minute session.

For more information please contact Richard Burnell on 07747 144874, Angharad MacGregor on 07976 322893 or Claire Hubbard on 07866004575. Alternatively, if you would like to be part of the Recharge Booth, drop an email to swbh.rechargebooth@nhs.net. A WebEx invite will be sent to your outlook diary, and you will simply need to click on the ‘join’ button to enter.

 2. Consideration of plans to re-introduce visiting

The Trust is considering how we best re-introduce visiting in a careful and controlled way, recognising that the safety of patients, staff and visitors is paramount. With cases increasing locally we need to be particularly mindful of how we do this, but we also recognise the impact on patients and their relatives with our current restrictions.

Currently we are considering plans to further increase our visiting allowances within critical care, maternity and paediatrics. We will share confirmed plans once they are agreed. We will then consider how we could ease restrictions for people with a long length of stay, recognising the impact on being isolated in a hospital / community bed for those patients. At all stages we will monitor cases in the community and government guidelines to ensure that we don’t introduce unnecessary risk.

For the time being our current restrictions remain with allowance for birthing partners, one parent of a child, end of life patients and visitors of those who lack mental capacity.

3. Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidance update

Following new national IPC guidance for the remobilisation of services within health and care settings, informed by local and national prevalence and incidence data, we have begun the process of reviewing our current IPC guidance and processes and are actively looking to see where we can make possible changes.

Colleagues can remain assured that physical distancing of two metres is considered standard practice in all health and care settings and colleagues may choose to wear higher levels of PPE following their individual risk assessment.  For full details of changes to the guidance please click here

4. Support colleagues with children affected by school closures

With schools having restarted recently and the threat of outbreaks of COVID-19 remaining there is a risk of further community outbreaks leading to temporary school closures. Colleagues who have caring responsibilities for children in schools affected by any temporary closures should ensure they notify their line managers as soon as possible.

Line managers will discuss the working arrangements possible to ensure that colleagues are supported through this difficult time. This may involve allowing colleagues to work from home or take carers leave, annual leave, parental leave or accrued toil.

Public health guidance should always be followed for any household that has a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection.

5. Swabbing: A ‘how to’ guide

It is vital that inpatients are not only placed in the right care environment (Red, Lilac, Blue ward) but also that swabbing is carried out appropriately and effectively in each environment.

Remember:

  • Every patient MUST be swabbed on admission.
  • Patients on Lilac wards MUST be swabbed every 3 days.
  • Patients on Blue wards MUST be swabbed every 5 days.

Follow the Trust’s pathway here.

How a swab is collected is also extremely important. The team has produced a quick ‘how to’ video that shows you how to collect and package a PCR swab for Coronavirus.
Click below to watch the short film:

6. Research update

The R&D Department continue to recruit patients to COVID studies and the Trust is still receiving approaches about new studies. We continue to prioritise studies that have been classed as having Urgent Public Health (UPH) status by the CMO.

The SIREN study which is open to staff is one of these UPH studies and now aims to recruit 100,000 staff members in the coming months. The overall aim of this study is to determine if previous COVID-19 infection in healthcare workers confers future immunity from having the infection again. It will also look at any new infection and therefore will involve both repeat swab and the antibody blood test every two weeks on average (variable from 1 to 4 weekly sampling), for one year. You will get the results of your samples.

To register an interest to take part in the study visit this link. If you have colleagues who don’t access email, you can print the form and either take it to a member of the research team (we have offices in the Clinical Research Facility at Sandwell; D46 and BTC at City) or pop in the internal post to the SIREN Study Team, Clinical Research Facility, Sandwell General Hospital. Alternatively call 6657 or email swbh.randd.staffresearch@nhs.net to book an appointment.

Restart of the pre-COVID diverse research portfolio is underway and studies are being reviewed for re-opening to check for changes to the patient pathway. One of the questions we are asking is whether the patients can be seen in the Clinical Research Facility at Sandwell. The CRF has new Visionable ready monitors for virtual clinics. Do please contact Gina Dutton or Julie Colley if you would like to see the facilities.

7. Changes to car parking at Sandwell and City

To allow construction to begin on our new multi storey car parks at City and Sandwell, car park closures have come into effect at both sites.

The closures are as follows:

  • City Hospital – The main staff car park has been reduced in size, all spaces to the right of the barriers (the area nearest the Birmingham & Midland Eye Centre) has been cordoned off. Plenty of additional parking is available at the rear of Summerfield House, around Brookfield House, at the rear of the old Laundry building and in the sunken gardens car park.
  • Sandwell Hospital – The consultants car park has been closed completely and the outpatients car park has been partially closed.

Additional guaranteed car parking spaces are available free of charge at New Square for Sandwell based staff. Please contact the car park admin office on ext. 6424 to apply for a New Square permit.

For more information on the parking provisions please contact Diane Alford at diane.alford@nhs.net.